As of the time of this writing, PSI handles the cosmetology licensing exams. They actually administer a written test and a separate practical exam. The fees are $56 and $71, respectively. If you have to retake one, they are $51 and $66.

There is an extra $28 license application fee. Submit an application to register for the PSI Colorado cosmetology exams. You must pay for and take and pass the practical exam first.

https://co.cos.brighttrac.com/

But if you are applying for a license by endorsement, you need to use the Colorado Department of Regulatory Agencies online application system. And this is $50. Note that you need to have passed the tests to get licensed in the other jurisdiction.

https://www.colorado.gov/dora/licensing/Default.aspx

PSI has a Colorado cosmetologist Candidate Information Bulletin. It tells you what you need to study and what materials you need for the practical portion of the testing. You must pass both portions within a year. Otherwise, you must apply and pay fees again.

Colorado has a cosmetology education system that relies on credit hours. Applicants must have 1 credit hour in the following: Facial Makeup, Laws, rules, and regulations, and Management, ethics, interpersonal skills, and salesmanship. 2 credit hours of shampooing, rinsing, and conditioning are required. Hair removal is the required 3-hour course. Chemical texture services must be 4 hours, and Application of artificial nails must be 5 hours. The one 6-credit-hour course is Disinfection, cleaning, and safe work practices. The 7-hour courses are Manicuring and pedicuring, hairstyling, and Facials and skin care. Haircoloring and Haircutting are 8 credit hours each. These classes are a total of 60 credit hours. And 75 percent must be clinical training. Approved schools in Colorado would generally be set up to provide all required classes.

Most states determine minimum cosmetology training via clock hours, not credit hours. If you attended such a school, 30 clock hours will count as 1 credit hour. This could be a problem in some cases because many states have a 1600-hour course. But 30 x 60 is 1800 hours. So it’s not clear whether you may have to take some extra classes to complete 60 total credit hours.

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Like many U.S. states, the requirements to get licensed as an audiologist in Colorado have gotten more stringent in recent years. Doctoral programs in audiology have become more common. So state licensing agencies have moved towards that requirements.

In some cases, you can still get a license in Colorado if you have only a master’s degree. But you must have earned that degree before July 1, 2007. If you are going to apply with a master’s degree, there is an additional requirement of getting certified by the American Speech-Language-Hearing Association. You must earn their Certificate of Clinical Competence in Audiology. And the degree must be accredited by the Council on Academic Accreditation. There is a problem with this, though. And that is that ASHA currently requires a doctorate degree. So unless you became certified before ASHA changed its rules, then you might not now even be able to get certified with a master’s degree in audiology.

For degrees conferred on or after July 1, 2007, you must have a doctorate. And that degree must be accredited by either the Council on Academic Accreditation or the Accreditation Commission For Audiology Education. In 2016, the Council had accredited the University of Colorado (Boulder) and the University of Northern Colorado’s audiology programs.

http://www.asha.org/uploadedFiles/CAAAccreditedPrograms.pdf

The Academy of Doctors of Audiology has a list showing the Accreditation Commission’s approved programs. There don’t appear to be any in Colorado.

http://www.audiologist.org/audiology-programs

If you are applying and do not have currently have a license in a different state, then use the first page below. If you do have a current audiologist license in a different state, then you can try for a license by endorsement. Normally, you will get this license without meeting any other requirements. But that depends on the rules of the other state in which you are licensed.

https://drive.google.com/file/d/0B0ilA2uoe__oaC1lX3lUQUtDLWs/view

https://drive.google.com/file/d/0B0ilA2uoe__oMGFHT2hOQlZjaEU/view

The fee to apply for an audiologist license in Colorado is $145, as of June 2016. This is payable to the State of Colorado. This charge is the same whether you are applying for the first time ever or for a Colorado license by endorsement.

It is somewhat unusual that there is no audiology license exam in Colorado. However, all licensees must have malpractice liability insurance of $1 million per incident and $3 million total per year. These must be obtained from an insurance company. The Office of Audiology Licensure does not have a list of approved companies. Just make sure you are getting a policy from a licensed insurance company.

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The general rule in Colorado is that athletic trainers must register in this state before they begin working in this profession. The license agency is the Office of Athletic Trainer Registration.

Trainers must register if they engage in any of the following activities: planning for injury prevention and risk management, including education and counseling; identification and treatment or management of medical conditions, including referrals to medical professionals; use of therapeutic modalities; leading or teaching of exercises for conditioning or rehabilitation; assisting in the use of prescription medications; education to the general public on the services of an athletic trainer; and acting as a planner or administrator of athletic training or trainers.

Athletic trainer registration applicants in Colorado must have at least a bachelor’s degree. They must also complete an athletic trainer educational course.

The last major requirement is to pass an athletic training exam. The statute says that any test approved by the Director of the Office of Athletic Trainer Registration is acceptable for this exam requirement. So this requirement may change as to exactly what certification or licensing exam is acceptable. But at the time of this writing, it is the BOC exam. That test is created by the Board of Certification For The Athletic Trainer.

The procedure here is to take and pass the exam first. Then, you can apply for your license.

https://drive.google.com/file/d/0B0ilA2uoe__oZ3NNTThGMkNGbTg/view

There is a $100 application fee for Colorado athletic trainers. After your application is put into the Office’s records as having been received, you are required to also create a Healthcare Professions Profile Program account.

https://www.colorado.gov/pacific/dora/HPPP_Create_Update

BOC requires you to complete a program accredited by the CAATE to qualify for their certification exam. Look for “Professional” programs to qualify for the test and certification. When checking in June of 2016, there were 5 such bachelor’s degree programs in Colorado.

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Professional land surveyors who meet certain experience requirements can get a license in Colorado and engage in independent work in this field. The licensing body for this profession is the Colorado State Board of Licensure for Architects, Professional Engineers and Professional Land Surveyors.

Existing land surveyors who are licensed in another state can get a license through endorsement. But there is a special requirement. These applicant must take and pass a Colorado land surveyor exam. This is not the national exam. So you may have to spend some time specifically studying for this 90-minute test.

The typical route to licensing is to graduate from an ABET-approved land surveying course, register as a land surveyor intern, and then get 2 years of supervised experience. While you are about to graduate or while getting your experience, you should take the Fundamentals of Surveying exam. After meeting the 6-year combination of education and experience, you take the Principles and Practice of Surveying exam, or PS.

The FS and PS exams are both given by the National Council of Examiners For Engineering and Surveying. In the April 2016 PS exam, 72 percent of test takers taking it the first time passed. Only 38 percent of the people taking it at least a second time passed.

http://ncees.org/exams/ps-exam/

If you graduate from a 4-year course that is not approved by the Board, then you will need 4 years of experience instead of 2. And 2 of the 4 years must be under the supervision of a licensed land surveyor. But additional federal employees are qualified to be a supervisor even if they are not licensed in a state. You need to check for this if you are offered a training position or job to make sure your supervisor is considered to be an exempt federal employee.

Some 2-year land surveying courses are approved by the Board. And some 4-year engineering courses and 4-year degree programs with specified land surveying classes fulfill the education requirements. But if this is the route you go, you will need 6 years of experience. 4 of those 6 years must be under supervision as described above.

If you have only a high school diploma, then you need 10 years of experience, with 6 of those being under supervision. Be aware that this route to a Colorado land surveyor license is being phased out and expected to end in 2020. This licensed occupation has a general trend of requiring more formal education.

The land surveyor and intern applications can be found below (this was being done online at the time of this post). You will have to pay a $100 license and application fee for the full professional land surveyor license. Interns only have to pay $30.

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The Colorado State Board of Licensure for Architects, Professional Engineers and Professional Land Surveyors is the licensing agency for architecture professionals. They run the license program for regular architects, but not landscape architects.

A person who is already licensed in another state can apply for a Colorado license. These applicants will generally be approved if they got licensed with the same or substantially similar qualifications as those imposed by the Colorado State Board for non-licensed applicants in this state. This is a license by endorsement.

New applicants need to meet various different combinations of education and experience. And they must also pass the ARE, which is the Architect Registration Exam. The ARE currently has 7 divisions, and it is by no means easy to pass all of these. But a study guide is available for each one. As of June 2016, the fee is $210 per division, which is a total of almost $1500.

http://www.ncarb.org/ARE/Preparing-for-the-ARE.aspx

Experience requirements mentioned below generally must be a part of the Intern Development Program, or IDP. This program places students for internship training and supervised experience that is led by a licensed architect in the United States or Canada.

http://www.ncarb.org/Experience-Through-Internships.aspx

Arguably, the best way to qualify is to graduate from an NAAB-accredited professional architecture program. This way, you only need 3 years of experience through the IDP. That is 3740 hours. It is possible to still qualify via an architecture or related program that is not approved by NAAB. But you will generally need additional experience. And you can even qualify with no degree, but the experience requirements are much higher.

7540 hours are required for pre-professional architecture degree programs. All of these are bachelor’s degree, so no associate degree qualifies here. Similar degree programs require varying amounts that are either 11,300, 13,180 or 15,060 hours. Someone with no degree at all needs 18,800 hours of experience. The exact degree programs assigned to each experience level can be seen on Page 2 of the following page.

https://drive.google.com/file/d/0B0ilA2uoe__ocHQtb1FPV05jLWM/view

Both the endorsement and examination-based applications can be found on the State Board’s forms page for architects. A “grades transfer” application is when you already passed the ARE exam (all 7 parts) in another state, but you have not yet been licensed in that state. However, you still must meet the Colorado education/experience requirements to get licensed through this method.

https://www.colorado.gov/pacific/dora/AES_Architect_Applications_Docs

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Professional engineers are licensed in Colorado by the State Board of Licensure for Architects, Professional Engineers and Professional Land Surveyors. Some existing out-of-state licensees can get a license without meeting further requirements. But for applicants with no existing license, a lot of education, exam, and experience qualifications apply.

A license by endorsement is available when the jurisdiction who issued the applicant’s existing license has requirements that are just as tough as the ones to become a professional engineer in Colorado. However, there is another way to qualify by endorsement. If the requirements in the other state are not as difficult to meet as Colorado, then that is okay as long as the requirements were as difficult at the time of initial licensure.

Now, for the rest of this article, I will assume you currently have no license. In this case, there are multiple ways to qualify. The typical way (not the only way) is to become an engineer intern first. This is possible if you are already an intern in another state as long as the requirements are pretty much the same for that other state. Candidates usually become an intern by graduating from an ABET-approved school and then passing the Fundamentals of Engineering exam.

If your degree is 4 years or more but is not approved or is in a related science, then you would still take the FE exam to become an engineer intern. But you need 2 years of experience or at least 6 years when combining education and experience. However, even if you have not graduated, any combination of 6 years plus a passing score on the FE exam and a high school diploma is sufficient to be an intern.

After you have achieved intern status, there is one more exam that you will eventually have to take. That is the PE exam. Assume that all the options for becoming a licensed professional engineer in Colorado listed below also require the PE exam unless otherwise noted. I just won’t write it every time.

8 years of total education and experience are required if you graduate from an ABET-approved engineering program. You should be an intern to qualify this way. If you graduate from an engineering program that is at least 4 years that is not ABET-approved or is in a science only related to engineering, then the total is 10 years if you are an engineering intern. But if you earn the experience not as an intern, it is 20 years. There is one other way. If you do not graduate but do have 12 years of combined education and experience, you can apply and get a license as long as you were an intern when completing the progressive experience.

Retrieve the license application forms on the State Board’s website. You must renew your Colorado professional engineer license on October 31 of every odd-numbered year. As of 2016, there is a $100 for an engineer license application and $30 for interns.

https://www.colorado.gov/pacific/dora/AES_Engineer_Applications_Docs

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Colorado’s addiction counseling licensing program awards successful candidates with the professional designations of Certified Addiction Counselor (CAC Levels I to III) and Licensed Addiction Counselor. The licensing agency is the Colorado Office of Behavioral Health.

A CAC I is supervised, and a CAC II does not have to be supervised. But a CAC II cannot be someone else’s clinical supervisor. CAC III can work as an independent addiction counselor and also supervise the clinical activities of others. But LAC is the highest designation, and this requires a master’s degree in clinical counseling.

Colorado addiction counselor licenses are valid for 2 years, and they must be renewed by August 31 in odd-numbered years. The exception is if you originally get your license 120 days or less before the expiration date. In that case, the license is good for two years plus those extra days occurring before the usual expiration date.

A candidate can get Level I in the Certified Addiction Counselor program by completing an approved training course and getting 1000 hours of supervised clinical experience. At least a high school diploma is required.

CAC II must complete additional approved training of 2000 hours and 1000 hours in psychotherapy (but only a high school diploma is required). All of these 2000 hours must be in addition to the 1000 hours earned as a CAC I. CAC II candidates must pass a licensing exam. In this case, it is the National Certified Additional Counselor, Level I exam. Don’t confuse the Colorado certification level and the exam level, which are different.

CAC III is the first level to require a bachelor’s degree, and it must be in behavioral health sciences. Colorado typically requires you to be a CAC II before you can apply to become a CAC III. You must also pass the National Certified Addiction Counselor, Level II exam. 2000 hours above the hours for CAC II are required.

The Licensed Addiction Counselor, in addition to at least a master’s degree in behavioral health sciences, must pass the Master Addiction Counselor exam. Additional training and experience is also required.

The exams mentioned above are created by NAADAC: The Association For Addiction Professionals. Guidance on how to take these tests is available on their website. As of 2016, each test runs at about $200. You can save about $100 if you are a member. But you don’t need membership or national certification to get an addiction counseling license in Colorado. A professional membership is around $100. If you want a career in this field, then membership might be beneficial. But you will have to decide this for yourself since everyone is in a different situation.

http://www.naadac.org/states-using-ncc-ap-exams

Work verification, training documentation forms, and application forms can be found on the Office of Behavioral Health’s website.

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Acupuncturists in Colorado are licensed by the Office of Acupuncture Licensure. The Office’s address is in Denver, at 1560 Broadway, Suite 1350. Their phone number is 303-894-2988.

Keep in mind that Colorado acupunture licensees must have an account with the Healthcare Professions Profile Program. This is for all medical professionals in the state. You can also print out your license through this account, as the state no longer sends out a copy through the mail. This is different than the application, which is the second link below. Register with DORA (the Department of Regulatory Agencies) and apply and submit your acupuncturist application separately. You actually must apply first. Then, within a few days, you will be able to register. And you must do that before you will be granted a license.

https://www.colorado.gov/pacific/dora/HPPP

https://drive.google.com/file/d/0B0ilA2uoe__od3JwOHhnVEJWd28/view

There is a $100 fee to apply for this license, as of June 2016. A check or money order should be made payable to the State of Colorado. Renewals of this license are required by last day of the year on each odd-numbered year. However, if you get a license within 120 days before December 31, then you don’t have to renew at the end of that year.

The main substantive requirement for an acupuncturist license in Colorado is certification from NCCAOM, which is the National Certification Commission For Acupuncture and Oriental Medicine. NCCAOM awards a certification called the Diplomate of Acupuncture. It requires a combination of education/training, experience, and an exam. You must graduate from a school that is accredited by ACAOM. And these are master’s degree programs that usually last 3 or 4 years. Exams include Biomedicine, Acupuncture, and Foundations of Oriental Medicine. Refer to NCCAOM.org for certification application and exam registration requirements. ACAOM has a database of accredited acupuncture schools online. At the time of this writing, there were 3 accredited schools in Colorado. They were Denver’s Colorado School of Traditional Chinese Medicine, Louisville’s Institute of Taoist Education and Acupuncture, and Boulder’s Southwest Acupuncture College.

http://www.acaom.org/find-a-school/

Liability insurance requirements are $50,000 per incident and year for sole proprietors and general partnerships. But it’s $300,000 for corporations or LLCs.

Transcripts are required if you have never had a license in a U.S. state. If you are actively licensed elsewhere, then you can apply for a reciprocal license.

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Colorado has a Board of Accountancy that provides licensing for the accounting industry. They have a CPA license and one for public accounting firms.

The state uses CPAES to process applications for both CPAs and firms. This is CPA Examination Services. It is not a government agency, but states sometimes outsource this sort of thing. CPAES is part of the National Association of State Boards of Accountancy.

Whether you are applying for a CPA or firm license, you will find links to the appropriate application page on the NASBE website. Just look to the right in the Useful Links section. You will have to register, and then you can proceed with the license application process.

You will need 150 credit hours of college classes to qualify to take the Uniform CPA Exam. That must include a bachelor’s degree, but there is no specific requirement for a master’s degree. Nonetheless, it would be a good idea to find a master’s degree program that is specifically designed to qualify you for a career as a certified public accountant. A Chartered Accountant program does not award any college credit.

You also need at least a year of experience before you can take the Colorado CPA test. This must be 1800 hours and between 1 and 3 calendar years, but not more. But the experience could be completed up to 5 years before your application date. The work can be in academia, industry, government, or public accounting. A combination of these is not acceptable. The whole year is supposed to be in one of these areas.

Colorado CPA applicants must pass the AICPA Ethics Exam and either the Uniform CPA or IQEX Exam (the International Qualification Exam for foreign-educated applicants who are already professionals in specified other countries).

Public accounting firms must present a copy of their articles of incorporation or organization. Other things that must be submitted are business cards, the firm letterhead, promotional and advertising material, and information on any marketing or trade events in which the firm will be participating as a firm.

As of June 2016, the individual CPA license fee is $100. The firm fee is $175. This does not include exam fees. Those are $835 for the IQEX, and there is not a nationally set fee for the Uniform CPA Exam. So check the price when you apply.

There are specific courses that all CPA applicants must take. They include some accounting and some more general business courses. Start reading on Section 2.4 in Colorado’s accounting rules and regulations to see a list of the required classes.

https://drive.google.com/file/d/0B-K5DhxXxJZbanF5OVBRSUpELVU/view

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The Colorado Division of Real Estate has a couple of different kinds of mortgage licenses. One is the mortgage company registration, and the other is the mortgage loan originator license. A sole proprietor may also have to register as a company. Mortgage companies must register if they are dealing in residential mortgage loans.

Mortgage loan originators will have to take a pre-licensing course on mortgage lending and also pass one or more exams. I will put here the exam rule that was to be effective on March 1, 2016. You must fulfill one of these:

1. Pass both the National and Colorado portions of the SAFE test;

2. Pass both the National and Stand-alone UST Component of the SAFE test; or

The NMLS course you attend must be 20 hours, to include 3 hours of federal law, 3 hours of ethics, 2 hours of nontraditional mortgage products, and 12 hours or electives Approved courses can be found at the below page.

Criminal background checks and credit reports are also required to get a license for Colorado mortgage loan originators. There is an NMLS fee of $30, a credit report fee of $15 unless you already ordered one in the last 30 days before your application, and a fee of about $36 for a background check.

Go to the following page for the application forms.

https://www.colorado.gov/pacific/dora/node/92971

But you also need to register with NMLS for a national background check.

Insurance and a surety bond are also required. Call the Division of Real Estate (303-894-2166) or ask insurers/bond companies about how to do this.

Colorado mortgage company registration is fairly simple. You submit an MU1 form to NMLS, along with fees of about $298. You can see the checklist for applying on the following page. You’ll usually need to be registered as a business with the Secretary of State.